On Valentine's Day, 2011, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass legislation to extend the three most abusive spying powers of the Patriot act without any reform. Earlier in the month, House Republicans had attempted to pass the Patriot act extension bill, H.R. 514, without obeying their own rules for how legislation should be passed, and failed.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has uncovered tens of thousands of illegal uses of the Patriot act - abuses that skirt even the flimsy restraints that have been placed on Patriot act spying powers.

The Patriot act is part of an unconstitutional new federal government system to unreasonably search and seize the "papers" of millions of american citizens - information about our phone calls, our emails, our private purchases, the books we read, and even our pets' veterinary records. It's a Big Brother system so ripe for abuse that it's almost inevitable that it will be used for political purposes, furthering corruption and stifling dissent.

as you can see below, the February 2011 vote on Patriot act renewal was not absolutely split according to party lines. Many more Republicans voted for it than against it. Many more Democrats voted against it than for it. However, members of both parties crossed over the aisle to defy their party leadership.